


Dark Cupid

by upintheattic



Category: My Babysitter's A Vampire
Genre: M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Unrequited Love, Very much Requited, there is a little tiny bit of sarah/erica towards the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29436297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/upintheattic/pseuds/upintheattic
Summary: After a confession goes wrong at school Ethan and friends have to stop the plans of a heartbroken teen to avoid totally ruining the school's valentines dance. Meanwhile Ethan and Benny are having trouble working through some feelings, and Sarah does her best to push them in the right direction.
Relationships: Ethan Morgan/Benny Weir
Comments: 9
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

“It’s been pretty quiet lately,” Benny says to no one in particular, Rory and Ethan walking along either side of him in the school hallway. “How long before something goes totally wrong?” 

Him and his friends weren’t lucky very often, Ethan thinks to himself, and Benny was probably right that something was bound to go terribly wrong sooner rather than later. A week without a monster to fight is a week where something worse than some emo siren at a talent show is going to come along to try and kill them. Usually it meant that something big was in the works so the absence of the paranormal made Ethan a little on edge, maybe more than he should let it.

Rory jumped in front of his friends suddenly, an accusatory finger pointing at Benny. “Dude! Do not jinx it! The Valentine Dance is this week and I need things to be normal until then.” Rory said, attempting to be serious. His friends smiled to keep from laughing, Rory couldn’t be serious to save his undead life, he came off just as goofy as always.

“Why? Do you have a date or something?” Ethan asked. They continued down the hallway to the lunch room, Rory explaining he had planned out the perfect way to ask out the prettiest girl in school and he couldn’t let the supernatural get in the way of his flawless proposal. As he put it he couldn’t let anything scare her off.

“So you better not get a single vision until then. Don’t touch anyone!” It was Ethan’s turn to have Rory point at him with narrow eyes watching him, Rory was mostly joking around. Mostly. Honestly Ethan wanted everything to stay normal for as long it could, but normal doesn’t exist in Whitechapel and if it did it wouldn’t last long anyways. 

“Okay, okay. I get it. I’ll try not to,” Ethan said, his hands up in mock defense. “I don’t even think I’m going to the dance anyways.” 

He side eyed Benny to watch for any kind of subtle response to it, as far as Ethan could tell there wasn’t any. Instead Benny looked straight ahead and nodded along for a moment before opening his mouth. 

“Really?” Benny replied too loudly, catching both his friend’s attention. “I mean,” he flinched, lowering his voice. “Maybe we should still go? Knowing our luck whatever supernatural problem of the week is going to go down there. Better safe than sorry…” 

Benny trailed off as they turned the corner where the hallway was blocked by a group of students who surrounded two boys.

“Maybe but I don’t really see the point unless I get a vision. It’s not like anyone is going to ask me to go anyways. It’s going be super depressing otherwise, dude.” Ethan shrugged, Benny’s face lit up with an idea, suddenly he turned towards Ethan, a confident grin on his face. 

“If that’s the case then how about we-” Benny got cut off before finishing.

Not looking forward Ethan smacked roughly into the person in front him, the mob of students at a stand still. He was shoved back harshly by the person and stumbled into Rory who helped him back to his feet.

Before Benny could repeat himself the uproar of the crowd laughing kept him getting out his question. 

What was he going to ask? What did he want to do? Ethan’s mind ran through a few different questions, most of them overly hopeful and wishful thinking on his part. He shook off the thoughts.

A loud laugh came from the middle of the horde of their peers. Looking forward gave the three boys the answer to their shared question of what was happening. Ethan stretching his neck out to try to see over the heads of much taller kids, Rory carefully floated on his tiptoes to get a better view.

The cry had come from a senior boy that stood in the middle of the mess. “What do you think you’re doing, loser?” He hissed at the shorter boy, a red head that Ethan recognized as a junior. 

He could see the boy holding a large sign that he couldn’t make out the words from where he stood, but could guess it had been a valentine dance proposal. It sagged sadly in his arms, the glitter dripping from the corners onto the floor and his ears as red as his fiery hair. The senior, despite their best attempt to seem abrasive and shocked, was still nervous; his eyes shifted quickly as sweat slid down the sides of his face. 

The senior turned to look at his friends with a forced smile, “Can you believe this guy? G-get lost, dork.” There was laughter and Ethan’s stomach felt uneasy. He wanted to leave or even just disappear, he couldn’t imagine what the red headed boy must feel like.

Whispers from other students could be heard. “Does a drama geek really think he can go around asking football players out? At least he has the confidence to try that.”

“Bros, this isn’t looking good,” Rory whispered, his eyes unable to look away from the center of the crowd. At this point it felt like such a cliché that it shouldn’t have gotten to Ethan as bad as it did. Glancing to his left he saw Benny stare intently at the sad scene in front of them. His eyes were dark and his lips tighten to avoid showing any discomfort or anger. 

Benny always looked sharp, Ethan thought forgetting what he was going to say. Benny was the human version of ‘double ended sword’, he was made up of edges and points. No one would’ve really guessed it, like a rose with thorns hidden in the bush he was fun and lighthearted on the surface but a dangerous edge laid under it. Ethan knew it but it never mattered. Benny was too good of a person to hurt anyone. But the way he stared at the two boys, maybe he was a little wrong. The spellcaster’s eyes were stormy, a nervous twitch from his hands made Ethan a little uneasy.

“Can we just get out of here already?” Ethan pulled on Benny’s arm to get them away quicker. 

As they tried to make their way out of the crowded hallway the rejected boy threw his sign to the ground and attempted to escape the fury of judging eyes, not wanting to stick around to be humiliated further. He pushed his way through the formation of peers and pasted Ethan, grabbing his arm to quickly get away from being there any longer. 

That had done it. The touch lasted long enough to give Ethan a vision, Rory is going to be bummed about this he thought afterwards. 

The vision itself was as bad as any other he had before. He saw the dance happening, he saw the punch bowl, someone pouring something into it, and everyone attacking each other after. He could see Benny going after someone, attacking them but he couldn’t tell who or why. 

The images flashed through his head quick and sudden, it felt like a smack to the face; a year later and he still couldn’t shake the headache he would have right after a vision.

Ethan brushed his hand lightly to his nose, a smear of fresh blood on his fingers and the taste of iron on his lips. His friends stared at him with knowing concern. It became common that not only would his eyes dimly glow but he’d get a headache and a nose bleed right after his visions. 

They would last longer and give him clearer depictions but at the cost of causing him physical discomfort. Eventually it was meant to stop, at least, that’s what Grandma Weir told him. His powers were growing and his body needed to adjust. 

“Dude, don’t tell me.” Rory groaned, worried but still a little miffed. 

“Yeah,” Ethan leaned on Benny sounding slightly annoyed with himself. “It was a vision about prom.” Just what they needed to hear after watching the disaster that had unfolded in front of them moments before, the crowd began to disburse. 

“Looks like we’re going to the school dance,” Benny tried to joke, a bitter smile wide on his face. “Well this should be fun.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Are you sure it’s Jayson?” Sarah asked after being explained what had happened. “I mean, he always seemed so nice.” She knew him from a shared class but never gotten to know him, guess she never would now. 

“He’s the one that triggered the vision and there was someone pouring some red stuff into the punch so, uhm, I’m pretty sure.” Ethan answered while brushing through the pages of an old book of potions, seeing if by chance he could find anything that looked similar to what he had seen. 

Jane had gotten herself familiar with varying potions but couldn’t remember anything like what Ethan described, still he hadn’t given up on looking. Sarah joined him later on to lighten the load, she was always good about helping him research. 

Tossing another book that seemed to yield no answers to an ever growing pile Sarah tried to shift the conversation. 

“It sucks that he got bullied so much, it must have been rough. I don’t really blame him for lashing out,” she sided eyed Ethan who was overly focused reading. “What do you think?”

“Mhm?” He looked up for a moment too busy searching for answers. “Oh, yeah. It really sucked. I feel bad for the guy. Do you think Benny could translate this?” He was avoiding the subject, he didn’t want to think too deeply about it, and Sarah was able to pick up on it quickly. 

“Yeah, probably. How does Benny feel about it? He looked pretty upset.” She added causally. “Have you talked to him about it?”

“Uhh, I guess it bothered him. He was being weird afterwards,” he sat down next to her putting down the book. “He was trying to ask me something and then suddenly after he didn’t want to talk about it. I’ve been too busy researching, the dance is tomorrow and it’s not a lot of time.” Sarah watched the way Ethan bounced his leg, his eyes browsing through the room instead of looking at her. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t meet her eyes now. She placed a comforting hand on his knee and smiled.

“I think you should go talk to him.” She suggested in earnest.

“But-”

“I’ll keep looking here. I got it, okay?” She was smiling still. Something about her tone made Ethan think she knew something he didn’t. Maybe he could take a break…. Benny was his best friend after all and he should be there for him.

“Okay, yeah. I’ll go talk to him now.”

\--

Ethan had no idea why he agreed to do this. He didn’t even know what to say especially since Benny didn’t want to talk about it before, but he promised Sarah so he had to. Besides, Benny was his friend and he seemed upset so Ethan felt he had to be there for him if anything was wrong.

“Uh, hey, Benny.” Ethan greeted awkwardly. They stood at the entrance of the Weir house, the sun setting behind him. “Mind if we talk?” 

Why was this so awkward? It wasn’t before, why is now different? Maybe it was the way Benny had seemed so bummed out during the week after Ethan got the vision, did that really mess up his plans that much? Ethan couldn’t tell, he’d been so busy researching that asking more about it had slipped his mind.

“Sure, yeah. Come on in. Is it about the dance and that guy?” Benny asked as they made their way to his bedroom, grandma Weir was out of town again and the house felt much more empty than usual. No wonder Benny spent so much time at Ethan’s house, this place was dead without someone else’s company.

“Not really, I guess. You’ve been kind of off lately. What’s up with that?” Ethan asked, trying to be casual and failing.

Benny opened the door to his room and shrugged before flopping onto the bed. “Dude, it’s whatever. Nothing serious.” His tone wasn’t reassuring that everything was really okay.

“Ben, I know when something is bothering you. We can talk about it if you want, dude.” Ethan sat next him on the edge of the bed, he bit his lip slightly nervous without really knowing why. Benny glanced at him, seemingly more open to talk now. 

Benny sat up from his spot on the bed, their knees nearly touching from how close they were. It felt like they were being pulled towards each other, nervous Ethan leaned away slightly. What did he think he was doing? What did he even want to happen being that close?

“Besides, the dance is tomorrow and I don’t want you to be distracted with whatever is bugging you.” He added quickly, face now flushed. 

That was a poor choice of words. “Ugh. Just forget it.” Benny said, bitter and turning away from him. “Have you figured out what you saw in your vision?”

“Don’t change the subject, dude. Come on, just talk to me.” Ethan went to grab Benny’s arm to playfully shake him into saying something but it had backfired. 

The touch instantly gave Ethan a killer headache and he shot his hand away like the contact had burned him. There was a short flash of another vision, it was scene from before with Benny attacking someone but now Ethan saw clearly that the person was him. 

The usual punch in the gut feeling he got after a quick vision like that hit harder and Benny shot up from where he laid on the bed to comfort him quickly, knowing what the look on Ethan’s face meant. “What? What did you see?” Benny kept from touching his friend again to avoid triggering another vision, although he didn’t know if it really worked like that.

“I don’t know,” Ethan lied, blinking away tears in the corner of his eyes and taking in deep breaths. “It was just sudden. I’m fine. It wasn’t anything new.” That was half true.

His first vision did have Benny attacking someone but he had figured that it was out of self defense, he hadn’t pictured his friend going after him for seemingly no reason. Or maybe there was a reason? They still didn’t have all the facts and the dance was only a day away.

“Listen, E, I’m just annoyed that we have deal with another dumb paranormal thing instead of having fun. Just worry about figuring out whatever you need to stop the dance from going to shit and everything will be fine.” Benny finally admitted but it didn’t seem like the whole truth. “I just wanted us to hang out together.” He shrugged lazily.

They were half turned facing each other again, Ethan’s head pounded and he rested it against Benny’s shoulder, closing his eyes. 

“We always hang out.” He breathed, missing what Benny really meant. “We’ll play video games after, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” Benny replied shortly, the knot in his stomach tightening.


	3. Chapter 3

Getting ready for the Valentine dance wasn’t any different than when Ethan got ready for last year's school dance. It went the same: his dad would tell him how he was growing into a fine young man, his mom would dote on him about how cute he was and his sister would say how goofy he looked in a suit. 

To avoid the problem from the last time of his mom wanting to take pictures, Sarah went ahead early to meet him and Benny at the school. Rory and Erica were likely already with her too.

Ethan looked himself over in the mirror. Compared to last year he filled out his suit a little better, he wasn’t much taller and he still felt goofy dressed up fancy but his demeanor was done nicer as he stood up a little more confidently. 

A mat black tux, basic white under button up, a shiny pair of black dress shoes borrowed from his dad, and he actually combed his hair a little neater than usual. 

For whatever reason Ethan felt he wanted to try a bit harder at looking nice this time around, although he didn’t have anyone to impress. He was well over Sarah especially since she flat out rejected him, but something in the back of his mind tugged at the idea that he needed to look extra presentable for someone. He wasn’t sure who.

“Ethan! Your date’s here!” His mom called from the bottom of the stairs. Ethan's face lit up in a warm pink, she was joking but it still made his heart drop. 

“Are they really dating?” He could hear his dad whisper as he walked out of his room and towards the top of the steps. “I’m only joking, Ross. Why? Did you hear something?”

“Well, I think a while ago-”

Ross glanced up and the conversion died as Ethan entered the hallway. Benny halted in his conversion with Jane completely when he spotted Ethan at the top of the steps, likely having not heard his parents whispers. 

Benny’s suit was a satin like fabric with a pretty shade of seafoam green, the tux was less corny than from last year; his cheeks were a rosy color and he looked extremely handsome. Ethan noted the corsage in his friend’s hand and his own blush creeped up to his ears, hopefully he didn’t look too red. Wordlessly Ethan made his way down the stairs steps and awkwardly smiled at Benny. 

“Hey,” Benny grinned widely at him.

“Hey, Ben.” Ethan felt flushed and remembering his whole family was watching them made him feel twice as embarrassed. 

“I-I got this for you.” Somehow Benny seemed more embarrassed than he was, nervously handing the corsage to Ethan. “I didn't know what color your tux was so I went with a safe red. It… Looks nice on you.” Benny tried to be more casual and half shrugged but the blush gave him away. Well, it should have given him away but Ethan hadn’t noticed, however his family definitely caught on. 

“Awe, look at the two of you!” His mom hugged them both, an arm around each of them. “Let me get a picture! Please!”

Ethan didn’t protest knowing it would be in vain. Benny put an arm around Ethan’s shoulders and gave a wide smile, Ethan followed suit with an arm on Benny’s waist. They fit together naturally and it was no surprise having been friends for so long, it just felt right to be so close for pictures.

“Mooom, I think you have enough photos. We really need to go,” Ethan told his mom after a few too many pictures. “The others are waiting for us.”

“Okay. Okay. We’ll let you go. Remember don’t have too much fun.” Ross jokingly pointed at Benny with a stern look, which just made the boy nervous. 

“Of course. We’ll leave room for Jesus on the dance floor.” Benny tried to josh back in an attempt to be in Ross’ good graces, it was starting to feel like it would never happen. When the joke fell flat Benny anxiously smiled, a hand placed on Ross’ shoulder.

“Have him back by 11..” Ross stared at him, unamused. It was hard to say if Ethan’s dad was still playing around.

“Yes, sir.” Benny immediately took his hand off the older man’s shoulder, his movements a little jerky from nerves. 

When they were outside the house and away from earshot Benny let out an exasperated sigh. “You’re dad really doesn’t like me, does he?”

Ethan looked at him oddly, an eyebrow raised. “What do you mean? He likes you.”

“Sure. If you say so. Let’s just go before the vamps think we ditched them.” There was still a faint blush on Benny’s cheeks.

The words from earlier rang in Ethan’s ears ‘you’re date is here’/’it looks nice on you’/’don’t have too much fun’/have him back by 11’ The idea of them really together made Ethan’s stomach act up in a funny way, it knotted and twisted but the feeling wasn’t bad. His ears burned and they stayed silent on the way to the school.

\--

“Finally, Dorkella and his date is here.” Erica greeted them annoyed. “I can’t believe I let Sarah rope me into your weirdness. I would like to be alone with my date!”

“Wait until they realize you’re more the beast instead of the beauty.” Benny shot back, a smug grin wide across his face. Although he still jumped back a few steps when she lunged forward with a hiss, baring her fangs angrily and offended.

“Watch it, nerd.” She snarled. Rory held onto her from doing anything else and Sarah pushed past them to greet the boys. 

“Guess I struck a nerve with that one.” He muttered before turning his attention to Sarah who held onto a book that was covered in mold and dust, a silk bookmark stuck between pages towards the end. She seemed excited and Ethan was hoping it was because she found out some good news.

The dance had been going for an hour now and everything seemed to be going perfectly fine, the punch hadn’t been spiked at least. Or its affects hadn’t kicked in yet.

“I have good news and bad news.” Sarah said bluntly.

“Bad news first.” Ethan answered before she could even ask the question he knew was coming.

She blinked. “Okay. Well, bad news: we couldn’t find Jayson anywhere so either he isn’t the one that’s going to spike the punch or he’s really good at hiding. Good news: if someone does still end up spiking it then I found a spell that should fix everything.” Sarah handed the book to Benny, opening the book and seeing the spell was pointed out in red ink, he mouthed the instructions over a few times to himself.

“That’s actually some pretty good odds then.” Ethan smiled. “Maybe things won’t go too bad. If you’re up for it we could have a dance afterwards- as friends of course!” He asked Sarah, a nervous laugh followed right after.

Her lips went to a thin line as she awkwardly glanced between him and Benny, his friends eyes met for a moment before quickly looking away from each other. “I think I’m okay, Ethan. Maybe you should save that dance for someone else. Sorry.”

The air suddenly felt very stiff and tense. Rejected twice by the same girl, double embarrassing. She gave a half comforting pat on the shoulder before making her way to Erica who was inside the gym that was decorated with red and pink hearts everywhere. Benny’s grip on the book was tight and he kept his eyes glued to the pages. 

“I’m going inside. Let me know when you figured out the spell and remember not to drink any punch.” Ethan informed his friend and left without waiting for a response.


	4. Chapter 4

“What the hell was that?” Benny asked Sarah after finding her near the drink table.

“What was what exactly?” She tried to hide a grin.

“The whole ‘save that dance for someone else’ crap. I told you everything was fine!” He sounded more distressed than annoyed, his voice strained. “I don’t need a wingman, Sar. He probably doesn’t even feel the same way.”

Sarah’s face dropped slightly seeing the pained look on her friend’s face. “You’re both so dense.” She said, although it did nothing to comfort him. “What happened to all that confidence you had about asking him out?”

“I don’t know! I was a lot dumber a week ago, okay! I was going to and then seeing that confession with those two dudes freaked me out and I know he wouldn’t do that, but I can’t handle him being weirded out by me. Besides, he’s busy trying to save the day- again!” Benny ranted, frustrated. 

Absentmindedly he took a cup filled with red punch from the drinks table next to them and took a swing to ease his nerves. Truthfully he meant to take the cup on the left that had been from a safe to drink soda. 

They were both so caught up in their moment and the high emotions that they didn’t notice a fight began to break out a couple of yards away. 

“Ben, you know he isn’t going to be like that. I think you should talk to him after the spell. I’m sure things will work out.” She sounded sincere and it reassured him enough to calm down somewhat, he took a deep breath and nodded his head. “He’ll probably want to talk afterwards anyways.”

“Yeah, wish you gave me a heads up on that spell beforehand.”

“Sorry! It’s kind of hard to translate a dead language, not everyone is raised to understand that stuff! Jane had to help me with it. But you’ll be fine, I promise.” 

“Sure, okay. I trust you. Maybe he’ll be really chill and everything will be perfectly fine. Or-” he switched gears quickly. “It goes really really bad and it’s safer if I keep all my feelings in here,” he points to his chest. “And then, I die. That sounds like a plan. I can live with half the school beating each other up for one night.”

“Benny, you have to-” Sarah was cut off by varying screams coming from different parts of the room, students attacking their dates with a strange gleam to their eyes. They seemed mindless but were focused on attacking only the dates they came with. Even a few teachers were throwing hands towards one another. 

“Shit, okay. It’s happening. Where’s Ethan?” Benny asked, shifting into a serious paranormal fighting mood.

“I don’t know. I’ll look for him. Just go on stage and use the microphone for the spell, they have to hear you.” Sarah followed him through the crowd, harshly pushing people away from them. “And Benny, remember it's going fine. Ethan’s your friend.”

He didn’t respond but his frown and quicken paced told Sarah that he heard her clearly. This was going to be such a shitty night. Why can’t they just have one normal dance? Is that really too much to ask for? 

The spell didn’t really have any set words, it just needed to be heard by the people affected by the anti-love potion. But the trick was the caster had to admit to the person of their true affections for it to work. Essentially a true love confession was the only thing that could break the spell that darkened everyone’s heart enough that they would attack the people they cared for. 

Probably would have made things awkward if they attacked someone who wasn’t their date, good thing no one knew what was really happening nor would they remember after Benny did a quick memory wipe later on. 

It was difficult to fight his way through to the stage to reach the microphone, no one had been going after him but between panicked students and brawling kids in every direction it was hard to rush through them. Benny couldn’t spot the others anywhere either and he needed Ethan to be here. 

Suddenly he felt a strange tug in his upper chest, like he was being pulled towards something… or someone. His mind became cloudy and it was getting hard to focus, thoughts spinning together and vision blurry. Something was wrong.

He felt so angry and heartbroken but nothing had happened yet. A faint memory of having taken the drink from earlier was the last conscious thought Benny had before racing towards wherever Ethan was.

\--

“This is so lame,” Erica groaned annoyed. 

“You don’t have help you know,” Ethan said. “I’m sure we can find Jayson on our own.”

No one was attacking each other yet and Rory, Erica and Ethan were standing guard for when the fighting would begin. All the doors were locked and everyone was trapped inside to make sure they couldn’t go making a mess elsewhere.

“I promised Sarah. Besides, I’m better at hunting than Rory.” She seemed proud of the fact, the thought made Ethan a little uneasy. 

Rory retorted, offended. “Hey! I’m a great hunter and I bet I can find that Jay guy without any help.” 

Honestly Ethan didn’t want to hear any of this. He knew this dance was going to be totally lame without a date, his chest felt tight and he missed Benny already. If anything a deep, secret part of him hoped he would spend more time with his friend during the dance. 

“What about you, E?” Rory’s question broke through his thoughts. “Hey? Earth to Ethan?”

“Huh?”

“Whoa you were really out of it. I was asking about your date?” Rory repeated himself. Ethan assumed he must have missed most of whatever he had said before because he got confused from the question.

“What date?”

Erica nudged Rory a little harder than needed and made a face that clearly said ‘shut up about that.’ It only made Ethan more confused. “Wait. Rory, what are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it, geek.” Erica said, tone biting and obviously hiding something. “He’s just confused and should keep quiet.”

“Hey!-Wait. Oh! He doesn’t know. Okay. Got it. Secrets.” Rory mocked the action of locking his lips with a key. “No talking, got it.”

“I’m so lost now. Erica, what date? Who did you even bring?” Ethan asked, sounding more demanding than he meant to. 

He kept an eye out for if anyone was starting any problems but it seemed fine for now, maybe things would stay calm enough to get what they were talking about. Was everyone keeping things from him?

“Sarah didn’t tell you? Christ, you really are out of the loop. Sarah is my date, okay. That’s why I’m helping. The sooner this whole thing blows over the sooner we get to hang out together tonight.” Erica explained casually, watching the crowd instead of looking at Ethan’s face. She leaned against the wall and folded her arms, parts of her hair falling over her eyes.

For some reason that had shook Ethan to his core. He was over Sarah, no question about it but something felt weird in the pit of his gut. Like he was jealous but it wasn’t because he wanted to be with her, more like he wanted what they had but he didn’t know what that meant. He kept himself from thinking about it more.

The way she said ‘hang out together tonight’ reminded him of what Benny had said the day before. He hoped they would still be able to play video games after this, it was a childish thought but he wanted to hang out with him. He wouldn’t admit to himself that he meant it in the same way Erica had meant it when talking about Sarah.

“Oh.” Was all he said before they heard panicked screams around the room, looking back they could see people begin to attack each other. “Shit. Okay. I’m going find Sarah. Look for Jayson and make sure he doesn’t get away.” Ethan ordered and ran off into the crowd of the battling teenagers.

People elbowed him in the sides or nearly made swings at his face and chest as he got in the way of them attacking each other. This was going to be a long night.


	5. Chapter 5

“There you are!” 

Ethan turned around thinking he found Benny and Sarah, there was only Benny and the relief he felt was short-lived when he noticed the way Benny’s eyes had the same dark heart shaped pupils everyone else had. Great, who was going to be able do the spell now.

More concerningly why was Benny going after him? There wasn’t much time to think about it before his friend lunged at him full force, Benny attempted to strangle his neck and Ethan was only slightly stronger to keep him at arm's length. 

“Ben, come on. Cut it out. What’s wrong?”

There was no response, there was no reasoning with him. What could he even say besides ‘please don’t break my neck’? 

Suddenly Benny grabbed the corsage, ripping it off Ethan’s tux and crashing it in a fist and throwing it to the ground. Despite the fact it was just a fake flower it still broke Ethan’s heart a little bit, secretly he planned to keep it. No one had ever done something like that for him. Benny was always the one that treated him like he was special, like he saw something great in Ethan that he himself didn’t see.

“Oh, come on now you’re just being mean. I liked that!” 

Benny’s eyes went wide slightly but he never stopped trying to attack Ethan. At least now Ethan understood his visions a little better. Benny’s grip on him was getting tighter and his nails dug into his skin, the pain made Ethan kneel down and Benny planned to take the chance to knee Ethan in the gut but was stopped before he could. Sarah had tackled him off Ethan and to the ground using her vampire speed and strength. 

“I leave you both alone for two seconds and you already can’t keep your hands off each other.” She joked but the humor fell flat as Ethan tried to catch his breath.

“What happened?” He asked, avoiding someone from nearly elbowing him in the back. “What’s wrong with him?”

Sarah held Benny from behind and kept his arms down, he couldn’t get away no matter how hard he thrashed and struggled against Sarah’s inhumanly strong grip. 

“Uhh, long story short. I think he drank the red stuff. You’re going have to do the spell.” She explained, although she seemed more focused on keeping Benny away from hurting Ethan.

There was so much yelling and fighting it was hard to think or move. Ethan couldn’t process what was happening without feeling overwhelmed. “How?!” He almost shouted, stressed out.

In between avoiding stray punches and people slamming into him, Ethan could see Sarah bite her lower lip before saying anything, Benny kept struggling against her.

“It’s a confession. Everyone needs to hear you confess your true feelings for someone you love. You have to direct it to that person in front of everyone.”

He almost didn’t hear her, honestly he might not have wanted to. Ethan’s body felt numb and his heart dropped in the pit of his stomach, suddenly nervous to the point of throwing up but he couldn’t figure out why. Why was he so freaked out by it? He didn’t have anything to hide, at least, he’s convinced himself of that.

“But I already confessed to you and I would like to think I’m over it,” Ethan called back. “Can’t Erica do it then?”

“She’s already confessed.” Sarah said, it was getting harder to keep ahold of Benny the more he tried to get away from her. “You need to go on stage and use the microphone and say it, Ethan. No one else can do this.”

“Why? Who would I even confess to?” He asked, a knot twisting tighter in the bottom of his gut.

“I think you know who.”

His mouth went dry and his body was totally stiff. Ethan looked ahead at the stage and glanced back at Benny’s face. His heart beating painfully fast in his chest.

“Okay.” He agreed. “I’ll do it.”

It took a few minutes to battle his way to the front of the stage, he made his way towards the microphone, narrowly avoiding being punched and kicked along the way. One person had grabbed his hair and pulled hard, Sarah broke him free quickly and he rushed to the safety of the podium raised above everyone and just out of reach from them. Sarah kept her grip on Benny, pushing him to the front of the hostile crowd. 

Ethan took the microphone in hand, it made a sharp high pitched sound from a feedback loop. He held it further away from his face, he licked his lips and tried to block out all other noise. 

Focusing only on his own pounding heartbeat and what he wanted to say, he thought of all his feelings. Every moment of closeness, every blush and longing stare, all the stolen glances and soft touches, how he wanted to hold his best friend’s hand and play video games all night. He thought about all of tonight. The way he got flushed at when his parents treated them like a couple to the now ruined corsage that Benny gave him. 

It all became too clear to Ethan, he knew it all along but was too nervous to ever even admit to himself let alone say it out aloud. 

“Benny,” Ethan started, “I really liked the corsage you got me.” An entire school of eyes turned to him, hanging on every word he said as they began to stop bashing on each other. Some almost frozen in place, listening to him intently. Even Benny stopped struggling against Sarah’s tight grip.

“I wanted to keep it, actually. It made me feel really special and happy. You make me feel really special and happy. I should have said this sooner, maybe it’s good that I didn’t but I wish I did because you are the Han to my Luke. And I was scared to admit it before but it’s true. I like you, Benny Weir. A lot.”

Everything went quiet and still, like the world stopped moving for just a few moments. It was only them. Their eyes met and Ethan could feel the nervous smile on his face grow wider when Benny blinked and the heart shaped pupils were gone. 

Soon followed everyone else, slowly they broke from their anger filled daze. Ethan fell to his knees from the overwhelming amount of anxiety that filled his entire body. 

Quickly Benny and Sarah made their way on stage to comfort him. The whole place was wrecked and he was thankful Benny could do an easy memory wipe, it wouldn’t fix the damages or any injuries but at least no one would be blamed for the mess. It’d be reasoned to teenagers getting too rowdy and that would be the end of it for them, more or less.

Sarah helped Ethan to his feet as Benny did the memory spell. Both their cheeks burning pink.

“You did it, Ethan.” Sarah comforted him. “You did great.”

\--

Benny, Ethan and Sarah made their way to the outside of the school to meet with Erica and Rory who had texted them that they found Jayson. It was cold and the wind was beginning to kick up some more causing Ethan to shiver. Benny walked closer to him, avoiding eye contact but smiled as their hands brushed against each other. Ethan was the one to make the first move and intertwined their hands, Benny gave a reassuring squeeze.

“Here’s the loser that totally crashed my night,” Erica said, waving Jayson around like a rag doll by the back of his shirt. 

Benny pulled them forward to get a better look at the older boy, although he was taller than him by more than a few inches. “So, you’re the one that caused everyone to go crazy back there?” Benny asked. “What’s the deal with that? How’d you know about the potion?”

“Listen, I didn’t even think it would work. I just thought it’d make some people throw up on their date.” Jayson answered back, tone sharp but his eyes gave away that he was nervous. Likely Erica had scared him before they got there. “I found it in some old book. I thought it would be pretty harmless. I didn’t mean for anyone to get seriously hurt. I’m sorry, okay?”

Everyone glanced at each other unsure if they should believe him or not. Ethan could tell he was being honest, at least honest enough to be really sorry for the trouble he caused.

“I was just really angry and hurt from my boyfriend chickening out and rejecting me in front of everyone like that. I guess I wanted everyone else to hurt too. That was selfish of me and pretty fucked up looking back.” The red headed boy added softly.

Benny stepped closer in front of the boy, letting go of Ethan’s hand for a moment. Jayson avoided eye contact. 

“I get it, dude. I was freaked out about getting rejected and I can’t imagine how you feel, but this wasn’t how you handle it.” Benny looked back at Ethan. “That guy was a jerk to you and that was really uncool but you can’t be a jerk back.”

Jayson looked between Ethan and Benny and grinned sadly to himself, a forced chuckle falling from his lips. “Well, at least someone gets a happy ending in this. I’m sorry about the mess, dudes. But can you at least explain how you fixed this? And the whole scary lady with the fangs and-”

“Yeah, no.” Benny stopped him in his tracks, followed with the memory wipe spell and a snap of his fingers had Jayson knocked out within the second. “He’ll think he got drunk and passed out. He won’t remember spiking the punch and if he’s lucky how upset he was over the heartbreak too.”

“Nice one.” Erica congratulated. “I think we can take it from here. Sarah, I got us dinner.”

“Erica!”

“I’m kidding!” She laughed. “Think you can handle him, Rory?”

Rory scrunched up his nose. “Why me?”

Everyone looked around each other smiling and when he didn’t catch on Benny easily explained. “Sorry, dude, but you’re the only one here that doesn’t have a date to get back to. So do us a solid if you don’t mind and put him somewhere safe?”

“Fine, but only because I don’t have any plans.” He took the older boy from Erica and sagged him over his shoulders. “You are lucky I’m free. Vampire ninja out!” 

Within a blink Rory was completely gone from sight.

“I will never understand how he’s so good at that,” Sarah said, impressed.

“Better not to question it.” Benny shrugged and took Ethan’s hand in his again. “And now, if I recall someone promised me video games after this was over.”

Ethan grinned. “Yeah, I know but I was kind of hoping for a dance first?” Benny’s ears turned red and he nodded his head, a little embarrassed but more than happy to agree.


	6. Chapter 6

Despite everything the music continued to play in the background and they ignored the chaos of teachers running around questioning students what happened as the gym was totally trashed. 

The music wasn’t a slow dance but that didn’t stop the two boys from holding each other close, Ethan’s head resting on Benny’s shoulders able to feel how hard and fast the spellcaster’s heart was beating. Benny’s hands were around Ethan’s waist as they slowed dance together.

“We aren’t leaving any room for Jesus, E. Your dad is going to be upset about this one,” Benny joked, blushing happily. Ethan laughed at the lame joke and looked up at the taller boy with a small smile.

“Not as upset as my mom is going to be when she finds out the corsage got ruined.”

“Right, sorry about that. I’ll get you a new one, promise.” They dopily grinned at each other, finally this was real, finally this could happen. It felt nicer than either of them thought it would. 

Ethan was the one to close the space between their lips, his hands resting on either side of Benny’s neck. Their eyes fluttered shut, it was soft and lasted for a few moments before they pulled away with wide smiles.

“Now your dad is going to really hate that one.”

“Benny!” Ethan couldn’t help but laugh. When it died down he added with another kiss, this time on the cheek. “Happy Valentines Day, dude.”

“Is that today? I forgot.” He joshed just to annoy Ethan a little more.

“Ben,” Ethan whined.

“I’m kidding. Happy Valentines Day, E.” Benny replied back sweetly. “Now about those video games…”

They giggled and pulled each other closer, foreheads touching and stolen kisses here and there. Everyone was too busy dealing with the aftermath of the damages from before to notice them, and the boys were unaware that Sarah and Erica were watching them afar. Their hands intertwined together.

“Gross, nerds in love.” Erica quipped playfully and smiled. She glanced back at Sarah who kissed her on the lips.

“Just like us,” Sarah said, putting an arm around her girlfriend’s waist. 

“We’re way cooler than them, babe.” Erica winked and pecked Sarah’s cheek with a light kiss.

“Suure.” Sarah lovingly rolled her eyes, pulling Erica closer to her. “Whatever you say.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy valentine's day! my gift to you is this completed multi chapter fic with all the parts posted in one day. hoped you enjoyed it <3


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